On the Physical Relevance of the Study of gamma* gamma -> pi pi at small t and large Q2

We discuss the relevance of a dedicated measurement of exclusive production of a pair of neutral pions in a hard {gamma}*{gamma} scattering at small momentum transfer. In this case, the virtuality of one photon provides us with a hard scale in the process, enabling us to perform a QCD calculation of this reaction rate using the concept of Transition Distribution Amplitudes (TDA). Those are related by sum rules to the pion axial form factor F{sub A}{sup {pi}} and, as a direct consequence, a cross-section measurement of this process at intense beam electron-positron colliders such as CLEO, KEK-B and PEP-II, or Super-B would provide us with a unique measurement of the neutral pion axial form factor F{sub A}{sup {pi}0} at small scale. We believe that our models for the photon to meson transition distribution amplitudes are sufficiently constrained to give reasonable orders of magnitude for the estimated cross sections. Cross sections are large enough for quantitative studies to be performed at high luminosity e{sup +}e{sup -} colliders. After verifying the scaling and the {phi} independence of the cross section, one should be able to measure these new hadronic matrix elements, and thus open a new gate to the understanding of the hadronic structure. In particular, we argued here that the study of {gamma}*{gamma} {yields} {pi}{sup 0}{pi}{sup 0} in the TDA regime could provide with a unique experimental measurement of the {pi}{sup 0} axial form factor

Probing the partonic structure of pentaquarks in hard electroproduction

Exclusive electroproduction of a K or K"* meson on the nucleon can give a #THETA#"+ pentaquark in the final state. This reaction offers an opportunity to investigate the structure of pentaquark baryons at parton level. We discuss the generalized parton distributions for the N #-># #THETA#"+ transition and give the leading order amplitude for electroproduction in the Bjorken regime. Different production channels contain complementary information about the distribution of partons in a pentaquark compared with their distribution in the nucleon. Measurement of these processes may thus provide deeper insight into the very nature of pentaquarks. (orig.)Available from TIB Hannover: RA 2999(03-200) / FIZ - Fachinformationszzentrum Karlsruhe / TIB - Technische InformationsbibliothekSIGLEDEGerman

SuperB: A High-Luminosity Asymmetric e+ e- Super Flavor Factory. Conceptual Design Report.

The physics objectives of SuperB, an asymmetric electron-positron collider with a luminosity above 10^36/cm^2/s are described, together with the conceptual design of a novel low emittance design that achieves this performance with wallplug power comparable to that of the current B Factories, and an upgraded detector capable of doing the physics in the SuperB environment